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nose and fuller lips might be all considered traits of a beauty face. Such beauty is most certainly
worthy of being appreciated and it is an important, enchanting part of our lives.
Some say that such traits (symmetry, luminosity, etc.) to be beautiful in that they relay biological
signals of health and fertility. Unfortunately, beauty and life, in many respects, have been
divorced today. While true beauty not only attracts but also transforms the admirer (thus a man
who falls in love becomes a husband and father, thus a giver and not only a receiver), today we
make great strides to gorge ourselves in this attraction, while abandoning any and all
transformation (pornography, no-risk relationships, etc).
That said, this kind of beauty is quite similar to the kind of beauty that we find in an object of art,
a statue perhaps. It is a beauty that is almost anonymous (a beauty that is independent of a
who), storyless, something ephemeral that is quickly generated with the passing of Photoshop
brush or the scalpel of a plastic surgeon.
Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LTp9c9bsY_Q
Sensible grace of Expression (Image: Henri Matisse)
Something different appears when we gaze upon the face in a different way. The face is, above
all, manifestation, revelation. It is something that we receive. More than the manifestation,
however, we receive the expression. Put simply, here we are not perceiving an object, rather a
subject.
The sensible beauty here lies in the ability to express. Some are more expressive than others.
Why? Very difficult to know. That gift known as charism, that simple joy of living that irradiates
intelligence, humor, lightness, agility and which exercises an almost gravitational pull on others
is ungraspable and mysterious.
Certain faces are simply blessed and others cannot help but appreciate such charm. Still,
sometimes it is this charm alone that is beautiful and basing a relationship on such foundations
alone can bring about tragic consequences.
Finally, I would like to share a beautiful quote from Bishop Fulton Sheens book, Three to Get
Married).
Beauty of the body attracts the eyes; beauty of soul attracts God. Man sees the face; God sees the soul. Marys
beautiful purity must have been such that it attracted less the eyes than the souls of men. No one would have loved
her mind or soul because of the beauty of her body, but they would have so loved the beauty of her soul as almost to
forget she even had a body. It is very likely that a human eye, looking on Mary, would scarcely have been conscious
that she was beautiful to the eye. When one is overjoyed by the beauty of the picture, he does not pay much
attention to the frame
The cult of the body can be understood in two ways: one after the fashion of the world, and one in the light
of Mary. Both are agreed that the body should be beautiful. The one beautifies it from without; the other beautifies
it from within. One adorns the body that it may be attractive through what it has; the other adorns the body
with the reflections of the virtues within. It was only after our first parents sinned that they perceived they were
naked. When the soul lost its raiment of grace, the body lost its attractiveness. The less beauty the soul has, the
more it needs to decorate the body. Excessive luxury of dress and vain display of external beauty are signs of the
nakedness of the soul. The beauty of the Kings daughter is from within.
The blind always have kindly faces, probably because they are less materialized by the things the rest of
men see. An inner radiance seems to shine through them. Those who are naturally ugly, such as St. Vincent de Paul,
become very attractive once they become saintly, as he did. The only ones who are truly beautiful are those who
look beautiful when they come in out of the rain. That kind of beauty comes from the inside out, not from the
outside in. It is the product of Virtue, not makeup; it is not skin-deep, but soul-deep.